Travel Management

American Express, Concur Announce Global Agreement

American Express Business Travel and Concur announced a global agreement that offers clients one comprehensive corporate travel and expense management program. Powered by Concur Travel & Expense and backed by American Express Business Travel’s leading global travel management services and expertise, corporate customers now have access to a single end-to-end program. The relationship delivers all three components of a best in class travel and expense management program - payment, travel management and expense management. As part of this relationship, the companies will create a joint product council, which will develop new functionality and services exclusively available to companies using this end-to-end program. This extends the successful relationship Concur currently has with American Express through the agreement previously announced with Global Commercial Card. (Source: American Express).

Airlines

Airlines See Signs Of Slow Growth

Major domestic airlines this week and last reported signs that corporate travelers are returning to the skies, including a slow migration back toward the front of the plane, more bookings within a 14-day window and growth in overall corporate spending and traffic. Still, carriers reporting fourth-quarter financial results cautioned that corporate travel recovery remains a slow and delicate prospect with progress skewed by comparing end-of-the-year trends to the abysmal close of 2008. (source: Business Travel News).

Airlines Add More “Peak Travel Day” Surcharges

The airfare monitoring web site FareCompare said that more airlines are adding to an already extensive list of "peak travel surcharge days" with American Airlines recently adding a peak travel surcharges to several dates in June, July and August, as did Alaska Airlines. This relatively new surcharge, targeting popular travel dates, was originally nicknamed the "holiday surcharge" since it was first applied to the busiest travel days of the 2009 Thanksgiving and Christmas travel season. Late in the year, carriers began adding dates into 2010; AirTran and US Airways were the first to add summer dates. So far, American and Alaska have added surcharges of $10 each way to some summer time dates. Source: (FareCompare press release.)

DOT Makes It Easier To File Complaints Against Airlines

The U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) now has a new aviation consumer web site that should make it easier to file complaints about air travel. The site has an online complaint form and also holds aviation rules and statutes, advice concerning airlines that have stopped operating or filed for bankruptcy protection. It features travel tips and publications, such as the Air Travel Consumer Report and Fly-Rights. The site also holds information about on-time performance; baggage mishandling records and refund information and links to other DOT sites. (Source: DOT press release).

Check In Bags or Ship?

The web site Airfarewatchdog.com recently compared the cost of shipping one's baggage to checking it and the results are compelling. For checked bags within the basic weight limit imposed by airlines, shipping proved to be the better value on shorter routes, such as Chicago-Orlando. FedEx would ship your bag for $17.46 on that route, compared to $23 or $25 on most major airlines. On longer routes, such as Boston-San Francisco, shipping costs a few dollars more. However, you do get the convenience of skipping both checking your bag and picking it up at baggage claim. Shipping companies also have tracking programs that prevent loss of luggage. The real savings come into play with overweight baggage. Overweight bags could cost as little as a third of what Delta charges.

Hotels

Hotel Rates Should Stay Low Into 2011

Expect hotel rates to continue falling until 2011, says the online travel research firm PhoCusWright. The reason: the one-two punch of demand that continues to fall, coupled with new rooms continuing to open up. It takes a long time to build and open a hotel and hotels tend to overbuild in good times. Hotel development probably will start to slow from 2011 to 2013. Meanwhile, occupancies will also stay low. They fell to about 55% in 2009 from above 63% in 2006. Occupancy levels probably won’t return to 60% until 2012, giving hotels pricing power. (Source: PhoCusWright press release).

Cars

Car Rental Companies Pull Recalled Cars from Fleets

Enterprise Rent-A-Car, Alamo Rent A Car, National Car Rental, the Hertz Corporation and Avis are pulling recalled Toyotas from their fleets. Enterprise, which also owns Alamo and National, pulled 50% of them in less than 48 hours. It’s also getting new vehicles and is keeping some existing vehicles a few weeks longer while grounding the affected Toyotas. The cars account for about 4% of the companies’ fleets. Hertz said that it will not rent any of the affected cars and is increasing its rental fleet. And Avis said it had pulled some 20,000 affected Toyotas from its fleet. (Source: Company press releases and announcements).

Summit Travel Group is committed to providing you with useful information on the latest developments in the travel industry. The preceding information has been compiled from a variety of sources and is updated monthly.

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